--- title: "Procurement of Continued Development and Support to RAFT+ Software" ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a.json" source: "Find A Tender Service" current_stage: "Award" buyer: "DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS" published: "2025-03-26" --- # Procurement of Continued Development and Support to RAFT+ Software Buyer: DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS Current stage: Award OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a.json) ## Summary The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has awarded a contract for the continued development and support of the RAFT+ software, a bespoke tool for assessing flood risk asset failure. This procurement falls under the IT services industry and is classified within the CPV scheme (code 72000000). The contract is awarded to HR Wallingford Ltd, the sole provider capable due to their intellectual property rights over key elements of the tool. The procurement method used was a limited procedure without prior publication, justified by exclusive technical reasons and intellectual property rights. The contract, signed on 19 February 2025, is valued at £378,610 and may include an optional one-year extension costing up to £106,230 (ex VAT). This procurement presents substantial growth opportunities for businesses specialising in IT services, particularly those with expertise in software development and support for environmental applications. HR Wallingford, through previous collaboration on the RAFT+ tool, is in a unique position to enhance this software further, thus opening avenues for additional specialised projects in flood risk management. Businesses that could effectively compete in similar tenders are those with a robust understanding of environmental protection and the technical prowess to develop proprietary software tools, especially in collaboration with government agencies. ## Notice Procurement of Continued Development and Support to the RAFT+ Tool ### Lot Information Lot 1 Direct Award with the Supplier Options: Optional Extension of One Year at maximum cost of PS106,230 (ex VAT) ### Procurement Information The Environment Agency are submitting this Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency (VEAT) Notice with a view to completing a Single Tender Award. Please note that this is not a tender opportunity, and that the contracting authority intends to award a Single Tender Award to HR Wallingford Limited. The Risk Attribution and Field Based Tool + (RAFT+) is a bespoke web application tool which allows the Environment Agency (EA) to assess the risk of failure associated with vital EA flood risk assets. It has been built and developed in a partnership with HR Wallingford who own crucial elements of the intellectual property within and underpinning the tool. With their bespoke tool and the ownership of the associated IP, the Environment Agency has concluded that HR Wallingford is the only supplier who can deliver the required technical solution for the moment. The justification under the Public Contracting Regulations 2015 for this Single Tender Action is against regulation 32 (2) (b) of the PCR 2015 for use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication where (ii) competition is absent for technical reasons, and also (iii) where exclusive rights, including IP rights, meaning that services can only be supplied by one economic operator - this is for the following reasons: * HR Wallingford have developed the RAFT+ tool with the EA to meet all of the requirements of the EA and the need to analyse fragility curves. No other equivalent tool is available, either immediately or in a form that could be readily adapted along with IP Rights to elements of the tool that the EA is unable to purchase at this moment. * Due to the ownership of elements of the RAFT+ tool (and the resultant IP Rights), no other supplier could be onboarded and use the tool, supporting this and developing it for the EA. The tool contains an element known as HR Reliable; this is a key aspect of the tool that is owned by HR Wallingford and is not available for third parties. Without this element, the tool would not be effective and would not meet the objectives of the EA. This would therefore result in a new system needing to be built, supported and maintained from another Supplier; this goes against value for money principles (as the EA would be paying twice for two systems), but also would create an operational risk as no system would be in place for a period of time (likely to be a minimum of six months). As Flood Coast and Risk Management is one of the Government's key area of focus and a DEFRA mission, This creates an unacceptable operational risk to the EA, if flooding were to effect areas that this tool could have been used to protect. * The EA will look to analyse the future market and the need for this requirement going forward past the proposed contract term, to understand whether this requirement should be tendered on the open market for future implementation. * The tool is more than simply the front-end element of RAFT+; the integration with HR Reliable, which is proprietary to HR Wallingford [and not available for licensing to third parties], is crucial to the successful operation of this tool. An alternative supplier would need to be able to deliver both an equivalent to the RAFT+ front-end of the tool and the underpinning software. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Find A Tender Service | | Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/011416-2025 | | Notice type | Award Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Services | | Procurement method | Limited | | Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition | | Tender suitability | Not specified | | Awardee scale | SME | | All stages | Award | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 26 Mar 2025 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | Not specified | | Award date | 19 Feb 2025 | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | £378,610 | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Complete | | Lots status | Cancelled | | Awards status | Active | | Contracts status | Active | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS | | Locality | LONDON | | Post town | South West London | | Postcode | SW1P 4DF | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLI London | | ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West | | ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London | | Local authority | Westminster | | Electoral ward | St James's | | Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster | | Delivery location | Not specified | ## Supplier | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Number of suppliers | 1 | | Supplier names | HR WALLINGFORD | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support ### Codes - 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support ## Release History - 26 Mar 2025 at 18:18 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/011416-2025 ## Notice URLs - http://www.hrwallingford.com - https://defra-family.force.com/s/Welcome - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04f92a.json.